The European Commission has approved Germany’s plan to provide €3 billion worth of funding for broadband rollout.
The German government announced its intention to make the funding available to boost broadband speeds over a year ago, but required the go-ahead from the European Commission, which conducted an investigation to make sure the plan does not contravene EU state aid rules.
"This aid scheme will make faster broadband services available also in areas of Germany where private investment is lacking," said European competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager on Monday.
"At the same time it ensures that consumers have a choice," she added.
The scheme is designed to provide high-speed Internet access throughout Germany, including in rural areas. It aims to facilitate the rollout of networks capable of delivering at least 30 Mbps on the downlink, and in most cases 50 Mbps, to residential and business customers in areas where currently only basic broadband services are available. Private operators and municipalities can apply for the funding.
The Commission ruled that most areas of the plan fall within its guidelines on state aid. However, those rules require that publicly-funded networks be open to all competitors on non-discriminatory conditions, which means that Berlin will have to take a rain check on its plans to include vectoring technology in the project.
Since vectoring makes it difficult for alternative players to gain access to the physical network to serve single subscribers, it cannot be used in state-funded projects for the time being, the Commission said.
"However, Germany announced that an access product capable of granting full access to vectored networks for competitors will be developed shortly," the Commission said. It will examine that product and provided it fulfils the guidelines, "vectoring could then also be allowed in state funded pr ojects," it said.
